The STC and me? (Take II)

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

John Wilcox observed: <<[Networking] I'd say this is the biggie. Of 
course, you have to be near a chapter HQ to benefit. And you still have 
to pay to attend monthly meetings. You do get a discount, but you'd 
have to attend quite a few to break even on dues.>>

This undoubtedly varies from chapter to chapter, and certainly isn't 
required by the STC guidelines for the operations of chapters. For 
example, STC Montreal (of which I just finished my term as president) 
charges nothing to attend regular meetings, though non-members pay C$5 
to help defray the costs of room rentals and the snacks we provide.

If your local chapter charges an attendance fee, ask the hard question: 
Why? With careful budgeting and some smarts, the chapter rebate should 
cover most of your meeting costs. We've done a great job (thanks 
Marielle and Lydia!) of finding inexpensive places to host our 
meetings, and have thereby saved enough money to be able to afford 
munchies for all, and even a small honorarium for the speaker. That's 
despite the fact that we're a smallish (200 members) chapter.

We do charge for some things, but even then, members get a break. For 
example, we typically offer members a discount of ca. C$50 on the ca. 
C$200+ cost of a 1-day seminar, and have saved our members C$100 and 
more by negotiating discounts on seminars given by big-name speakers 
such as Joann Hackos. We also charge for our networking dinners (2-3 
times per year), but purely on a cost-recovery basis. Nonmembers pay a 
premium of $5 to $10 to cover door prizes or any unexpected costs.

We have a very friendly and welcoming community at STC Montreal, and 
typically get 20-40 people at each meeting, and more than that at the 
networking dinners. Everyone is welcome. We periodically offer free 
admission to students as well, provided that they contact us in advance 
so we can be sure to have enough food.

<<[Professional Development] I've seen very little offered through STC 
that wasn't available elsewhere.>>

This depends on what you're looking for. For example, STC's 
telephone/Web seminars (http://stc.org/seminars.asp) are a great deal. 
For a cost of US$99 if a member hosts, or US$149 if not, you can have 
as many people attend as you can pack into a room around a 
speakerphone. If you can round up 10 people, one of whom is a member, 
you can attend a ca. 2-hour talk by an expert such as Saul Carliner for 
US$10 per person. Can't beat that!

<<There is an annual national conference and sometimes a regional 
conference, and you get a discount on those, but obviously it's a small 
percentage of the membership who can and do attend.>>

Attendance varies from year to year and region to region, but we 
typically get at least 2000 people at an annual conference, and 
potentially hundreds at regional conferences. The quality of the 
conferences varies; we're working on bumping up the quality of the 
talks and recruiting speakers for more advanced topics. (I'm managing 
the writing and editing stem this year, and have made a strong effort 
to encourage more advanced talks on a topic so we can attract more 
experienced members.)

<<I found almost nothing in the magazines to be of practical use.>>

Not even my articles? <g> Both publications are a mixed bag, since 
authors aren't paid. I find that there's usually at least one article 
that's useful even in a slow issue, though if you're very experienced, 
you may not find this to be the case. As for the journal, I find that 
it strikes a nice balance between academic and practical (this has 
changed enormously for the better about 5? years ago). If, like me, you 
believe that practice can be improved by a better understanding of 
theory and research results, you'll find articles in each issue that 
are both academically rigorous and practically useful.

<<The STC HQ web site says there are over 25,000 members.>>

This varies from year to year; membership has at times been this high, 
but has also dropped to ca. 16 000 after the dotcom meltdown. Still, 
that's lots of members!

<<Why would someone pay $140 do join STC and yet not take advantage of 
a much more practical, useful, and free group?!>>

Well, think of it this way. At STC Montreal, we typically hold 10 
meetings in a year, about 8 of which are formal presentations. If half 
of those are of enough interest for you to attend (and we strive for 
more than that), that's C$40 you save by being a member, plus we feed 
you good snacks and send you four newsletters per year. The _Intercom_ 
subscription is worth ca US$20, and _Tech. Comm._ roughly twice that 
(working from memory here, so don't quote me on those figures). That's 
ca. US$70 of value right there*. Add a C$50 savings on a workshop, and 
you're up close to the total expenditure. Plus, membership is tax 
deductible, further lowering the cost.

*There's talk of various "grades" of membership, with "no magazine" 
memberships and so on that would cost substantially less. No idea 
whether this will happen.

Plus, there's now group health and other insurance available to 
members. If you're freelancing, this alone can pay for the cost of 
membership, particularly in the U.S. You can certainly get this 
insurance through other organizations, such as the Editorial 
Freelancers' Association in the U.S., but you still have to pay their 
membership fee to get it.

<<There are plenty of organizations that you can join and benefit from 
for like 35 bucks a year.>>

There really aren't very many professional organizations available at 
that cost, and few that potentially provide as much value. In Canada, 
for example, a quick survey: The Editors' Assocation of Canada (EAC, 
www.editors.ca) costs ca. C$170 (US$130) and the Periodical Writers 
Association (PWAC, www.pwac.ca) costs ca. C$240 (US$180). I believe 
that the IEEE Professional Communication Society (www.ieeepcs.org) 
charges something comparable, but couldn't find their membership 
application in a quick search. So yes, you can join other organizations 
cheaply, but not many for as little as you seem to think.

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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